ROCK DRILON BUILDS A COMMUNITY LIBRARY IN DUMANGAS

Rock Drilon started his own “book nook” in Dumangas, Iloilo built on donations from writers around the country.

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As it turned out, it was way back in 2004 when Rock Drilon set up his private gallery at a two-floor unit in the building next to Rustan’s Supermarket on Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City, diagonally across the gate of Miriam College beside Ateneo, where I was still teaching poetry and fiction. The place also began to serve as a café on the ground floor, where some of Rock’s artist-friends’ works were exhibited, and wall racks had magazines and knickknacks for sale. In effect, it relocated what was initially called Mag,+Net, which Ces Drilon opened in 2002 ina small building by ABS-CBN’s gate.

Mag+Net Katipunan couldn’t help but become a venue for literary activities, given its setting within a radius bordering Diliman and Loyola Heights, where poets, writers and artists could congregate in harmony. I helped the visiting Fil-Am author Rod Garcia convince Rock to accommodate a first book launch, with Ces as the special guest.

It must have been on a latter event when Jimmy Abad, Mookie Katigbak and I found ourselves being asked by Rock to come up to the upper floor where he had his private studio. While being treated to drinks, it was in that sofa-lounging atmosphere when I jokingly suggested that he convert his studio to a bar to complement the café downstairs.

Well, so Rock did, and Mag+Net Katips rolled on for some six years, starting with important launches like that of the last issue of the poetry journal Caracoa that premier poets Lourd de Veyra and Joel Toledo co-edited in 2006. Poet-musicians like Easy Fagela with Los Chupacabras played on the stage at the back of the second floor. Their gig became a fixture. Rock then asked for a reading before the set, so that it became an actual event, with poets Toledo and Drea Teran initially hosting. Musical performers like Cookie Chua and Up Dharma Down began to draw crowds while mixing in readings.